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WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 29: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Majority Leader Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speak after the casket with the remains of Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) is carried from the U.S. Capitol building July 29 in Washington. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski-Pool/Getty Images)
Don’t hold your breath for another coronavirus aid deal from Congress soon.
Republican and Democratic congressional leaders showed few signs of movement Thursday morning and the departure of the Senate for the weekend indicated a ratcheting down of expectations on Capitol Hill.
Ahead of yet another meeting late Thursday between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell traded barbs.
“While they focus on unrelated liberal demands like tax cuts for rich people in blue states, we’re focused on serious solutions for the problems facing Americans right now,” McConnell said as he opened up the Senate for its Thursday session.
“Instead of getting serious, the Democratic leaders have chosen instead to misrepresent and even lie about what’s at stake,” he said.
McConnell was referring to the Democrats bid to reverse the limitation on federal tax deductions for payment of certain state and local taxes which would arguably help upper-income earners in Democratic states.
“Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn” about people hurt most economically by the virus and the resulting lockdown, Pelosi said about Republicans in an appearance on CNBC.
The impasse continued amid a backdrop of shaky economic data ahead of the July jobs report due out Friday. Meanwhile, weekly jobless claims fell in early August, but remained high by historical standards, at 1.19 million.
At her weekly press conference, flanked by Schumer, Pelosi said she could see light at the end of the tunnel that is the talks.
“We just don’t know how long the tunnel is. But we have to move quickly, more quickly, because the light at that end of the tunnel may be the freight train of the virus coming at us if we do not act to contain it,” she said.
The stalemate so far has seen the extra $600 paid weekly to the jobless by the federal government lapse. Another program put in place in March, the Paycheck Protection Program to aid small businesses, is set to expire Saturday without congressional action also. A federal moratorium on evictions expired July 25 but a separate requirement for 30 days’ notice of evictions provides some protection for delinquent tenants through Aug. 24.
“Congress should be strengthening the PPP. Instead, the Democrats have put it in jeopardy,” McConnell said, noting Republicans have offered to renew it at $190 billion in lending authority, which would be an expansion from the approximately $140 billion in unused authority it now has.
The standoff is also beginning to affect lawmakers’ plans for the usually sacrosanct annual August break. House lawmakers left Washington last week, but were told they would get a 24-hour notice to return if there was a House vote expected.
McConnell used similar language Thursday morning but said the Senate will at least formally stay in session, though without scheduled votes it is unclear how much substantial business will be conducted.
“I’ve told Republican Senators they will have 24-hour notice before a vote, but the Senate will be convening on Monday, and I will be right here in Washington.” McConnell said. “The House has already skipped town, but the Senate won’t adjourn for August unless and until the Democrats demonstrate they will never let an agreement materialize.”
All the back-and-forth raises the chances the White House will attempt to make some moves unilaterally by executive order to provide economic relief without the blessing of Congress.
Such a move could extend the eviction moratorium and revive supplemental jobless benefit payments. Pelosi has said President Donald Trump could extend the moratorium through executive action, but that would not forestall delinquent rents from piling up and being due at the end of the moratorium.
Read more: Trump may have power to extend eviction moratorium on his own, Pelosi says
The other possibility is a short-term bill on a narrow set of issues the two sides agree on, something that Meadows and Mnuchin have brought up before the two sides agreed to reach the framework for a deal by the week’s end.
And there is general bipartisan agreement on sending another round of cash payments to individuals, giving schools and colleges money to reopen safely and even on the PPP, albeit with some disagreement on details.
But the White House has said the jobless payments and the eviction moratorium should top any short-term bill, while Pelosi remained adamantly opposed to a stopgap bill when asked about it after her and Schumer’s press conference was over.
“We’re not having a short-term extension,” Pelosi said flatly.
